The Bombay High Court on Friday directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to regularise the appointments of three officers in its legal department. Justices S M Modak and Sandeep Marne, while pronouncing the judgment, observed that the BMC, being the largest civic body with a massive budget exceeding those of small states, does require law officers with experience.
Petitioners' Background and Plea
Pallavi Khale, Neeta Jadhav, and Pooja Yadav had been working as assistant law officers (grade II) with the BMC for five years. They petitioned the High Court seeking regularisation of their appointments. Their counsel, Joel Carlos, argued that their posts were permanent and questioned whether their employment could still be considered provisional merely because a service issue had been pending before the Supreme Court for seven years.
Court's Ruling
The High Court held that Carlos had made out a case for regularisation of their appointments. It also directed the BMC to consider them for promotion. The court analysed the law on service rules and noted that the BMC had followed the recruitment process, and the trio had completed their three-year probationary period.
BMC's Opposition
Opposing the plea, senior counsel Narendra Bandiwadekar, representing the BMC, stressed that the appointments were temporary and subject to the outcome of a Special Leave Petition pending before the Supreme Court. However, the HC rejected this argument.
Experience and Future Engagement
The court further noted that the three officers had experience appearing before the court for the BMC until it was stopped pending the plea before the Supreme Court. This experience, the HC said, would certainly help the corporation in engaging them for other legal work as well.
